On Saturday May 16 this year, conductor and music educator Patrick Brennan was working in his Central Coast garden when an accident with a circular saw nearly severed his left hand.

The Central Coast Conservatorium of Music, where Brennan is Artistic Director and CEO, and the Northern Sydney Symphonic Wind Ensemble, where he is Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, both issued statements confirming the accident but asked that no direct contact be made with the Brennan family at that time.

Patrick Brennan is currently undergoing a slow rehabilitation after nearly losing his left hand. Photograph courtesy of the Central Coast Conservatorium of Music

Two months after receiving the terrible injury, Brennan is now speaking publicly for the first time about what happened and the rehabilitation process that he is now undergoing.

“I am kind of back in one piece,” he tells Limelight. “It has been a bit of an interesting little journey,” he adds with considerable understatement. “I was being a DIY Dad out the back as one does when one is in a COVID-19 hiding phase. I was working on some garden stakes and the [circular saw] jumped back onto my hand and I...